You are the Sky, I am the Sea
by tentsubasa
Summary: After a conversation about dreams, Armin and Annie strike up a promise, but will that dream be realized? And what about the dream beyond the first? This is a translation and conversion of a fan-made manga on Pixiv.
1. Blue Eyes

**This is a translation turned story of a fan-made manga I found.  
**

**Here's a link to the manga for those who want to see it before reading: ****pixiv…net/member_illust…php?mode=manga&illust_id=44021892****. I'll also post it again at the end of the story for people who want to look at it after they know what everyone's saying.**

**Many thanks to my friend from high school who helped polish up my translations. It's thanks to her that it's as smooth as it is. (^_^)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own **_**Shingeki no Kyojin/Attack on Titan**_**, the fan-made manga, or any affiliates.**

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An undignified yell rang through the hand-to-hand combat practice grounds as a heavy object thudded to the ground.

"Ow…" a boy with golden chin-length hair panted heavily as he lay on the green grass trying to recover from being thrown. His cadet uniform was probably getting some serious grass stains from this bout.

The pale blonde head of his sparring partner popped into his line of sight from above, locks of hair falling out of her messy bun. "…You okay?" the petite girl asked.

"Ah, yeah, sorry," Armin apologized.

The girl crouched by his head and shrugged. "It's fine, but you really are weak, aren't you."

"Ahaha," he laughed as he scratched his neck in embarrassment.

She rested her chin on her hand. "Why are you even here, anyway?"

Armin simply smiled with a far off look in his eyes. "Have you ever heard of the ocean, Annie?"

"The ocean?"

"Yeah! The ocean!" He stretched out his other arm toward the sky, his eyes dancing in excitement. "It's a large body of water that supposedly covers the majority of the world's surface." As he gazed upward at the limitless blue, he continued, "It's so vast, you can't even see the land on the other side. And the surface of the ocean is a deeper blue than the sky." He grinned. "And it's not just the ocean—the flaming waters, the great ice fields, the sandy snow plains—beyond the walls, there's an even larger world." His gaze shifted to his hand as it reached to grasp the possibilities. "Someday, I'll leave the walls and go see the world outside."

Annie stood. "…I see."

"Kind of a weird reason, huh?"

"Not necessarily," she answered as she thrust out her hand to help him up.

"Thanks, Annie," he smiled as he turned over and took it. When he lifted his head, he paused for a second, as if struck. "Ah."

"What?"

He stared at how her pale face was framed by the perfectly blue sky. "Annie, your eyes are the color of the sky, aren't they?" He grinned. "A really clear and bright blue." He looked into them deeply. "They look cold, but they're just like the sky on a warm, bright day…actually, the sky really reminds me of you, Annie."

She pulled him up, and he lowered his gaze slightly to meet her eyes with a sheepish look on his face. "Thanks."

"…." She eyed him silently for a moment before abruptly averting her face and looking slightly down. "In that case, I bet yours are the color of the sea."

"Huh?"

"Your eyes are a deeper blue than the sky is now, but they're not as dark as it is at night. It's a mysterious blue. I don't know anything about the ocean, but if it exists, I think it would be that color."

"Hmm, maybe?" he cocked his head slightly and laughed a bit. "I don't really know myself, but I'm really happy you'd think that."

His eyes snapped open and he grabbed her other hand in both of his own as an electric current of excitement ran through him. "Oh! Come with us, Annie!"

"Huh?" She looked mildly taken aback.

"To the ocean, Annie, the ocean! Let's go to the ocean together and see what color it is!" His eyes danced merrily as he squeezed her hand. "I can't figure out if it's the same color as my eyes by myself, so you have to be there to tell me if it is!"

She shifted her eyes away and slid back a little; she wasn't quite successful in feigning disinterest. "…I guess I could…."

"Really?" His face was like Christmas. "No backing out, now!"

"If you find it."

"I will. I'll definitely find it, you'll see!"

"You know you have to graduate from here before you can start searching, right?"

"Erk…" he froze for a second before nodding slowly. "I'll do my best…."

::

The ebb and flow of the ocean waves lapped against the shore, creating a soothing, rhythmic melody Armin had only dreamed about in his greatest fantasies. He took in a deep breath of ocean air, relishing the salty tang on his tongue. As he walked along the shore, his boots squished a bit in the damp sand until he came to a stop at the water's edge and looked up to the sky. The ocean breeze flirted playfully with the long strands of the ponytail that draped over his left shoulder.

"Did you know? The blue of the ocean is the color of the sky," he murmured. His gaze shifted to the horizon where the sky met the sea. "Despite how beautifully the blue of the ever-clear sky and the blue of the ocean that reflects it appear to mingle together…" his voice trailed off as his eyes went pensive, staring into the fathomless blues. "No matter how much I've thought this over, I still don't have the answer, why it has to be this way." His voice had a touch of melancholy. "What kind of blue would you have seen?" His thoughts turned to a basement far away where a girl was locked in a crystal prison of her own making. "Hmm? Annie?"

"_Just like the blue of the sky and sea, though side-by-side, we will always be separated…._"


	2. The Future Survey Corps

"I like you."

Armin tensed a little, but stood quietly with a solemn expression while the young recruit continued her confession. With her short, dark hair, she looked a bit like Mikasa back when they had first joined the Survey Corps. "Ever since that time outside the walls when you saved me, I've liked you," she trembled in nervousness. "You were so brave, like a prince, and, well…" she trailed off before falling silent, waiting for his response.

His voice was firm. "I think you're a really great girl, but I can't think of you that way." He made to move past her. "…I'm sorry."

As he strode away, he could hear the girl and her friend talking, their voices slowly fading away.

Aaaand you got rejected," the slightly taller, blonde girl stated flatly.

"That's so mean! What kind of friend are you?" the first girl complained. She clutched her hands to her chest, still shaking from the nervousness earlier.

The other girl flipped her thick ponytail a bit and crossed her arms. "Didn't I tell you, though? He'll definitely turn you down, so you should quit while you're ahead."

"But…."

"You know what they call him, don't you?" the friend argued.

"Of course I do. He's the—"

"Titan-Chasing Squad Leader," a voice finished from right behind him, causing Armin to turn in surprise.

"Oh, it's just you, Jean. Don't sneak up on me like that," he laughed. "It's your day off, right? How're you planning to spend it? Are you going anywhere?"

"Yeah, just going to do some shopping." Jean sighed. "…You turned down someone again, huh?"

"You saw that?"

He leaned back and crossed his arms. "Yeah, I did. You're popular as always."

"Not really."

Jean scoffed. "They get all giggly and weird when you go by, don't they? All, 'Prince Charming!'" he mimicked. "Would it be so terrible to actually get yourself a girlfriend?"

"I don't know as you're really one to talk, Jean, when you're still pining after Mikasa."

"!?" Jean straightened with wide eyes.

Armin's sugary sweet, yet strangely ominous smile widened. "Did you think no one had noticed?"

"…."

Satisfied that he'd silenced his commander, Armin half turned to leave and waved with a smile. "If you don't get going soon, everything will be closed."

Jean scratched the back of his head as the squad leader shrunk in the distance. "And this is why," he muttered with a deep sigh, "it's a bad idea to get yourself involved with smart guys…."

Once out of Jean's sight, Armin's smile faded. His lips quirked in self-deprecation as he swiftly moved down a flight of stairs, the air growing colder and staler as he progressed. "Prince Charming, huh? That's not someone I can ever be."

"_Which story was it where a sleeping princess is awakened by the kiss of a prince—_"

"After all," his steps drew him toward a large crystal chained in the center of the room. A young, teenage girl in a Military Police uniform stood encased inside, her eyes closed as if in sleep, hiding her sky eyes beneath her unbound flaxen hair.

Armin slowly stopped in front of the girl frozen in time.

"You won't even let me to touch you," he placed his hand against the cool, iridescent stone with a smile that looked on the verge of dissolving into tears, "let alone kiss you."

He gently pressed his lips longingly where hers would be if not for her crystal prison.

"_Without a doubt._"

"Annie…" his voice rang softly through the still cavern as he laid his forehead on the cold surface of the crystal.

"_For the titan princess I'm chasing whose eyes will never open…_

"_I cannot become her prince._"

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**As promised, here's the link to the manga: ****pixiv…net/member_illust…php?mode=manga&illust_id=44021892****. **Y**ou should really check it out even if it's a little hard to figure out exactly where the speech and thoughts line up with the panels (sorry; I did my best to match things). The story is beautifully illustrated and colored; it captures everything wonderfully. I couldn't help but cry when I got to the end. I'm still crying now as I translate this thing with the last page open on the side. I'm not sure exactly why I'm so affected by this since there are other stories on FFN and others where Armin's still waiting for Annie long after, but something about this one struck me. I hope my awful conversion was able to capture an inkling of the power of the original.**

**Here are the original author's notes from page 9.**

**AruAni eye color story (pg. 2-4) and fabricated future content (pg. 6).**

**I made the future Survey Corps with this chain of command as a base: commander = Jean, squad leaders = Armin, Mikasa, with the position Corporal Levi had having been retired. Armin is in a position as a strategist, and although he only cares about the untainted memories of Annie, he manipulates multiple women while being a ladies' man and Jean is always going to be in a tight spot because of him.**

**The manga on page 6 was drawn quite a bit before, so that's why the drawing style is different.**

**Thank you for reading!**

**(End Manga's Author's Notes)**

**A couple of translation notes:**

**1.) In English, we generally use ****ocean**** and ****sea**** interchangeably, but in Japanese, there's only one word: ****umi****. Sorry if it was weird that Annie would use the word ****sea**** when she had technically only heard the word ****ocean****.**

**2.) When I wrote out "****titan princess****," it was a bit of a hack. So the actual line reads, "For the titan whose eyes won't open," but next to the Japanese characters for the word ****titan****, there's a note that it's supposed to be read ****princess****. Since we don't have an equivalent way of conveying the double meaning in English, I chose to write out both words. In any case, the reason I'm even talking about this is to explain that while Armin recognizes that Annie is undeniably a titan, to him, she is a princess; it's not that he thinks of her as some kind of titan royalty if they even have that sort of thing.**

**If you have a Pixiv account and liked this story, please be sure to rate/bookmark the original to support the artist!**


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